


Under One Rule

by Ruunkur



Series: Rise from Ash [2]
Category: Homestuck
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-07-30
Packaged: 2018-12-09 01:29:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11658771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruunkur/pseuds/Ruunkur
Summary: What really comes with the rule and reign of a fuchsia blood?





	Under One Rule

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place 20 sweeps after events in Rising From the Ashes.
> 
> I will not be posting the one shots as soon as I write them. I did four in one day(with varying lengths of words).  
> I will spread out the one shots, hope you enjoy!

You stare at the assembled court, eyes glazing over in boredom as each troll brings forth their own issues. Half of you is jealous of the life Eridan had received out of this. He was currently tracking down a renegade ship and you regret having sent him. You have spent the last twenty sweeps growing bored of your position and now you understand why your ancestor did what she did. You would have rather spent the time exploring than sitting in one place.

"Excuse me," you say, your voice spreading across the hall. Those in the court looked up at you, quickly subverting their gaze. You restrain a sigh when the doors burst open, standing and slamming your trident against the floor. "What the shell Mediator!"

Karkat glances up at you, grimacing and you can see blood on his uniform. "Well, you have a visitor, they're pissed. Want me to wait to tell you until later? Because they're coming now. And, if the group I left with the visitor is any good, may have been slightly delayed."

You tip your head and wave the court away, descending onto the floor and striding over to Karkat. You place a hand on his shoulder, seeing how he tried to keep the blood from those around you. "Get out," you snap as the press of trolls gets too close. "Court is closed for the night. We will reconvene in two nights' time. Now, Karcrab, who's coming?" You ask, your voice soft.

"Damn, some pissed off violet blood wants a word with you. Your guard is distracting her, but she's angry about something." Karkat grunts, resting a hand on your outstretched arm to balance himself. "Is Kanaya in her work room? I lose any more blood and I may pass out. Got her knife away from her though."

"Yes," you say and wave over someone who had not left quick enough. "Take The Mediator to the Caregiver's workblock. Have her look him over and don't get blood on my floor." You help the younger troll get ahold of Karkat before you head towards the direction he pointed out. Your mind is racing, your trident at a ready. In the past twenty or so sweeps, there had been many assassination attempts. Trolls still wanting your head for instating the national no culling law. That had been within your first two sweeps of ruling. Now, things have settled and if they protested your laws, they did it quietly and underground where they assumed you couldn't hear them.

You grit your teeth as you sweep through the halls, finding the scene of disruption easily. Several of the palace guards, all trained under Karkat, have a thrashing seadweller pinned in a corner. The woman snarls, her eyes landing on you before she lunges and you bring your trident up to block the attack that never would have landed.

You shake your head as one of the guards, only two sweeps past his initial training throws himself in the path of the seadweller and you see the splash of blue blood, watching it splatter your dress in annoyance as you raise your trident once more. Maybe a fight was what you needed to break yourself out of your boredom after all.

"What is your name?" You demand, aiming the trident and successfully pinning the seadweller to the wall with the pointed tins. There was enough room for the seadweller to take in a couple of surprised gasps of air before her hatred is turned on you. You meet the full force of her gaze and smile back at her.

"The...Shipmate," she says finally, her voice bitter. "I've come for compensation. I was denied the right to speak with you in the court. Then these...guards attacked me."

"And what is it that we have done to make you seek compensation?" You ask, noting the damage to the wall that the trident had made. Sometimes, you forgot what your strength consisted of.

"You poisoned and killed my lusus." The woman snarls and you want to laugh. The guards move, flanking you and you glance at the blue blood that so foolishly tried wasting his life and you are reminded of Equius. You push the thought aside, making a note to gather everyone for an annual dinner. It would be Karkat's wriggling day soon, you could use that as an excuse to see your friends and most trusted advisors.

"How old were you when that happened?" You ask, voice lazy. It's something you picked up, the dangerous habit of sounding bored, from weeks upon weeks of court. Maybe you would have Eridan sit through it when he returned from his current clean up mission.

"Four sweeps," she snaps and you raise an eyebrow. You were impressed she made it through her wrigglerhood after her lusus died at such a tender age. Perhaps she had a friend willing to help and feed her. Though, with such a young troll having no lusus, you are surprised Vriska did not pick her up for her own lusus. The thought makes you grimace and you set it aside.

"I am a kind empress and there were things I had to do when I was younger that I don't agree with it. Feeding the lusus that raised me was one of those. I can offer compensation for your lost lusus." You offer, voice soft. In truth, you hadn't want to feed her at all and you had realized that, at the young age of five sweeps, you would need to get rid of her if you wished to not fight your descendents to the death over a throne you weren't sure you would want for long. Back then, you hadn't even began to start the plans for overthrowing your own ancestor. "To remind you, you broke into the palace and attacked a very good frond of mine. You're skating on thin ice. I will not hesitate to have you thrown in a jailblock. Not to mention you attacked a palace guard and wounded him. You," you gesture to one of the guards before nodding at the fallen guard. "Please take him to a healthtender, make sure he is in good hands and stay with him."

"Yes empress," the violet blood said with a salute, picking up her fallen comrade and hurrying off.

"So you're twenty eight sweeps?" You ask, turning your attention back to the seadweller.

"Twenty seven," she admits and you nod. A sweep younger than you. You could work with that.

"For compensation of a culled lusus, I can offer you a place among the castle. What do you know of ships?" You ask, removing your trident from her neck and from the wall. It had pierced one of your favorite tapestries. You would have to ask Kanaya about the repairment of it when you two had a moment together.

"I know enough," she says, eyeing you warily. "Until recently, I was a deckhand. Got thrown off for getting into a fight with the captain."

"The Affluent is currently looking to replace one of the captains on her fleet, and The Magician can always use competent crewtrolls on his own fleets." You say, leaning on your trident thoughtfully. "Or, if you want to fight, I am sure that The Mediator can find a place for you."

"Why?" The Shipmate asks and you shrug, taking in the seadweller. Her hair was braided straight, her violet eyes proud. Her shoulders are pulled back, her spine straight as if she had training in one of the palace positions before. But you never remember seeing her face prior to today.

"I don't pike harming trolls." You reply, a smile on your face. "You are old enough to remember the Condesce, aren't you?"

"Yes," the Shipmate replies, rubbing at her neck. "Didn't you cull her?"

"Yes," you say, voice flat. "It was somefin that I regret, but it had to be done. Now, would you like a position or shall I have the guards throw you in a cellblock for breaking and entering and hurting two of my men." It was a statement dressed as a question, you knew she would pick service to the throne over a cellblock.

"I would happily be willing to take a position where you think I am best suited." The woman said with a bow. Definitely had training prior in a service position.

"I'll send you to the Affluent tomorrow evening. Return home before it gets too light out." You say and nod at one of the guards. "Make sure she returns tomorrow evening and that she is sent off with The Affluent before she leaves the harbor."

"Yes Empress," the guard says and follows the Shipmate out. You shake your head, watching them leave before hurrying to Kanaya's workblock, knocking on the door and letting yourself in without waiting.

Karkat is gripping from where Kanay has him stretched out on the couch, the jadeblood muttering under her breath. She glances up when you walk in, a needle in hand with thread strung through it. There are splatters of red blood on her sleeves from her patient.

"Feferi, why is my kismesis bleeding?" She asks, having ripped Karkat's shirt and studied the damage before she began to sew him up.

"Angry seadweller he decided to take on," you say with a yawn. "She has been dealt with. It seems like Eridan and I culled her lusus in the attempts to bring down my own. She has asked for compensation and has been given it. She will be working with The Affluent on one of her ships."

"And have you told Vriska this?" Karkat demands, letting out a hiss as Kanaya begins to clean the cut along his side. "Can't you be a bit nicer? That hurts,"

"Can't you learn that you don't have to take on every single angry troll yourself?" Kanaya shot back. She was the only one Karkat let patch him up, despite their constant bickering about it. You giggle, striding towards your matesprit, wanting a look at the cut yourself.

"I have cancelled court for the next two evenings. I am going down to the bottoms of the ocean tomorrow. Can I trust that you will let Eridan know that he has court duty if I do not return within two days?" You ask.

"Of course, and may I ask what you are looking for at the bottom of the ocean?" Kanaya asks, already finishing up with the cut in Karkat's side. He's still, trusting her hands to not make a single mistake.

"Proof," you say finally, turning your trident over in your hands once you sat in Kanaya's vacated seat. "Proof that I did the right thing."

"Don't you think it's a little late to be getting cold feet now?" Karkat demands, sitting up and snapping at Kanaya when she tried to lay him back down. His side is stitched up and his eyes, angry as ever, are trained on yours. "If you hadn't culled the fucking Condesce, you would have died instead. Sollux would have been part of a machine; I would have...fuck if I even know what would have happened to me. Kanaya would be in the brooding caverns, stuck under the surface of Alternia for the rest of her life. We would have been fucked without you Feferi."

"I-" you began and blinked when he moves closer, arms crossed.

"What proof do you need?" He asks.

"I'm bored," you say finally. "It's only been twenty sweeps and I'm bored out of my glubbing mind with court. I'm bored with dealing with this person or that. I want something exciting to happen! I want to know that what we did, it was worth it. It's been twenty sweeps and I feel like I'm in a pretty little gilded cage with nowhere to go. I get glimpses of what the Condesce felt and it gets so lonely after awhile Karkrab." You sigh, getting up and sitting on the recently evacuated couch, not caring about the blood that was still wet on it. You don't want to be in one place too long, proof to yourself how stale everything has grown to you.

"There's change coming," Karkat warns. "I can smell it in the air. The older trolls that preferred the Condesce? They went to ground, haven't been able to find horn nor fin of them. Most of the ones that disappeared were seadwellers. You go down to the ocean by yourself, where no one but Eridan, who you hate by the way, can find you... Well, you run the risk of getting yourself culled. The trolls that wait in the shadows, they want what the Condesce had. They want to be able to cull those that get in their way. And I don't mean the bullshit cuddly meaning you want cull to mean."

"I would take the fight," you say with a fire in your voice. You stare your ashen quadrant in the eyes, watching him set his jaw. You know that look and know that he wouldn't give the argument up any time soon. "I want things to change, that much is true. But I want to know that what I do is going to leave a legacy behind. Because, what is this worth if the next empress comes tearing it all down?"

"Do you think that's how your ancestor also felt?" Karkat demands. "I am not letting you go to the ocean by yourself. Take Eridan, take a seadweller guard that I approve of, but don't go by yourself. We can't afford to lose you Feferi. You haven't even turned in any genetic material. If you did die, we would lose our only empress and she would have left behind nothing but a couple of changes that wouldn't stick around. Maybe we would get another heiress, eventually, but she would be from the Condess. And gods only know what blood thirsty troll that would be. Those that you put in charge? Can only stand up against so much. They would try and cull us right after you."

"How did you know-" You demand, feeling your cheeks heat up. You had decided against turning in any genetic material for the first fifty sweeps of your reign. You wanted to know it was secure before you began that process. Not that you thought an heiress would come up so soon, but you wanted to be able to raise the next heiress yourself, and there had to be policies put into place for that to happen.

"I looked into the records when Eridan was complaining about your lack of a black quadrant. You still want him to flip, don't you?" Karkat asks and you sigh.

"Yes, but he won't." You grumble. It had been a sore spot for sweeps now. But you had told yourself that you wouldn't hammer Eridan about it until you were sure his quadrant with Sollux was slipping and you could come in and sweep it up. "I'm not going to let that one slip from my grasp very easily Karkat."

"And I will keep reminding you that he's not going to give Sollux up any time soon and I think Sollux would hate you more if you forced him out of their black quadrant." Karkat snaps. "Look, we all have our reasons. I know that you won't give up. So I'm here to remind you that it's not healthy to fix your aspirations on Eridan flipping black for you. Find another troll that you can hate just as much, and that you can push even further in that quadrant."

"He shore did fill his pale quadrant pretty quickly after I broke it off with him. And with Gamzee of all trolls." You say, more sulkily than combative. "And there is no one I hate more than Eridan."

"Don't drag my matesprit into your mess of a quadrant. And, ugh, you have a moirail you can be talking to this about. Neither of which Kanaya nor I are. Do you want me to get Aradia to come home for a couple perigees? We can have a huge party or something." Karkat says, putting his hands over his sponge clots. Kanaya laughs, tugging one hand away so he could keep listening.

"I will arrange for Aradia to see Feferi. If you will accompany me on a hatedate Karkat," Kanaya says, wanting to talk to him about prying into personal records. You sniff, pulling your knees to your chest. You do appreciate the help that your friends offer.

"Can you see that she gets back tonight?" You ask, realizing just how much you miss Aradia. Maybe you would find her a place in your castle so she wouldn't always have to go away. The thought makes you smile and you decide you would work on it. "I do want to arrange a meeting with us twelve. It has been too long,"

"I can do that," Karkat says, already on his palmhusk. He sweeps out of the room after pilfering a new shirt from Kanaya's closet, the troll grunting and sitting down next to you.

"I know i am not your pale quadrant, but if you need anything of me, I am here." Kanaya says and you nod. You're not sure what you could say but you move and rest your head on her shoulder, being careful of your horns.

"Do you think Karkat is right?" You ask after a moment.

"Right about what?" Kanaya inquires.

"That I'm pushing too hard with Eridan." You say after a moment. "I want to help Eridan, but his face just makes me so..."

"Frustrated?" Kanaya supplies. "I feel the same way about Karkat. He's so...angry all the time and it makes me want to help him, but also break him. I have been careful to keep our kismesis from falling apart. Sometimes, I wonder if he's too angry to keep in a kismesis."

"No, you two are perfect for each other." You say and pull Kanaya into a passionate kiss. "I do have tonight and tomorrow off of court. Why don't you and I celebrate that?" You suggest before kissing her again, tangling your hands in her hair. The sweeps were only going to get longer, your thoughts only going to keep second guessing themselves. For now, you would be happy in the here and now, spending time with your matesprit.


End file.
